What little boy doesn’t LOVE a marble track! I remember my two brothers taping piles of cardboard to their bunk beds to create the coolest Marble Tracks! Then they would play with them for hours! My little man is going through his ‘marble phase’ at the moment, so I thought we would have some fun this afternoon and make our very own Marble Track!
It was very easy to do & you can feel good about yourself as you use recycled materials : )
All you need is toilet paper/handy towel/wrapping paper rolls and blue tack…we also used some coloured electrical tape to add cool patterns too (I found a pack of these at my local $2 shop for $2.50).
It was a beautiful day so we decided to make our track outside. The area is protected from rain, but the pieces are easy to move inside and reassemble for future play too!
First we decorated our rolls with the tape – you could also paint them, colour them with felts or cover them in wrapping paper…or just leave them plain ; )
Then it is just a matter of sticking your rolls to your wall of choice in the formation of your choice.
To help our little marbles ’round the corner’ we cut a section out of the top of one of the rolls which allows the marble to drop down & round the corner easily ; )
We also added a ‘start’ and ‘finish’ line using (Paging Fun Mum’s favourite) Chalk!
Look how happy this beautiful boy is! Melts my heart : )
After a few ‘rides’ we added a cup to our finish line, this kept all the marbles together & ready for their next turn.
We got so much play out of this activity…I loved to watch them go down too lol!
*Please note: marbles can be very harmful for small children, so please ensure you watch them at all times!
OMG! My 4 year old laughed SO hard when he saw these photos! It was priceless! We had a lot of fun making them too!
Master L and I were mucking around not long ago & he said “your chin looks like a face!”. So I told him about the ol ‘chin puppet’ trick. My brothers & I used to do silly stunts like this when we were kids! Of course I have since grown up…and now use pom poms & googley eyes lol!.
We decided to give this idea a try today & I’m so glad we did! It was really funny, my little man is such a character!
I decided the best place to ‘shoot’ our funny faces would be outside (it was raining today so it was quite dark inside).
I got a picnic blanket for him to lie on, a cushion from the lounge for him to drape himself over and a sheet to cover up his body & top of his face to create the chin illusion!
I just used what I had at home – which granted may not be the same for everyone, so just get creative and use whatever you have. You could definitely use face paint to draw on your creations too, but I didn’t want the clean up hassle!
I used double sided tape to stick all of the ‘bits’ on. It was very sensitive on Master L’s precious skin & it did a great job of keeping everything from sliding off.
This guy was made from cotton balls, googly eyes & some cute little glasses I picked up a while back at a craft store (they sell them in the doll & bear making section).
This pretty lady was created using wool for her hair (I cut about 15 pieces at about 15cm long then tied them all together using a small piece of wool for the part) & googley eyes. Master L even let me apply lipstick to him…ahhh I’m so proud that he suffers for his art!
This crazy person was crafted from pom poms & googley eyes.
I love this ‘mad scientist’! Master L went to town on his character building on this one!
I highly recommend you give this a go with your little ones, I guarantee it will produce so many laughs!
As I’ve mentioned before, my 4 year old boy LOVES dinosaurs, so we have been having a bit of a ‘Dinosaur week’ this week. We made our own Dinosaur Fossils yesterday (http://pagingfunmums.com/2013/05/14/diy-dinosaur-fossils-jenni/) which was a huge success!
I found this ‘Dinosaur Egg’ idea over at ‘Momma’s Fun World’ (http://mommasfunworld.blogspot.com.au) and had to give it a try.
We’ve played with Bi-Carb Soda & Vinegar before in some Science Experiments (http://pagingfunmums.com/2013/01/12/science-is-fun-jenni/) and it’s great fun, so why not have ERUPTING DINOSAUR EGGS!
You will need:
1 cup bi-carb soda
2 tbs of conditioner
1/4 cup instant coffee
Vinegar
Plastic dinosaurs
It does sound like a bizarre mix I know, but it works!
My little 4yo boy is obsessed with Dinosaurs and bones, so when I saw this brilliant idea at ‘That Artist Woman’ (http://www.thatartistwoman.org) we just had to give it a go! It’s the start of all things ‘Dinosaur’ at our place! We are currently creating our own Dinosaur eggs which the kids are excited about!
This craft requires a ‘salt dough’ recipe (below) which is then kneaded, cut into circle shapes, imprinted with DINOSAURS (bought at a $2 shop), then baked and painted to look like Dinosaur Fossils. There are so many elements to this craft that the kids enjoyed! This is also very inexpensive craft too (my husband loves those).
Ok, so first, you will need to make your Salt Dough. For this you will need:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 cups water
Combine all of the ingredients – my little man liked this part (he considers himself a little bit of a ‘Master Chef’ ; )
And Mix
Then knead your dough and roll out with a rolling pin to make it flat and about 1cm thick.
Then cut out your circle shapes – we used a glass for this (a good little tip is to dip your glass/cutting tool in flour first, this makes for easy removal).
We also used a small bowl to fit a larger dinosaur.
Take your dinosaurs and place them onto the dough & push down (hard enough to make a good print & not too hard so you push through to the bottom). Again, dip your dinosaurs in flour before imprinting too!
The pack of Dinosaurs we bought, had some cool little plants too, which make some great prints!
Place all of your ‘fossils’ onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for about an hour at 180 degrees – this will make your dough nice and hard.
Cool thoroughly on wire racks.
Then it’s time for the kids to get painting. We used acrylic paint & watered them down. ‘Earthy’ tones work best! I mixed some black & white to create a cool grey colour, then used an army green colour which looked great too. I wish I had of had brown paint on hand but we are going to make these again so I’ll use brown then : )
Then blot your painted fossils with paper towel this gives them a great look!
Wow!
Then let dry completely before play.
You can also opt to paint yours with Modge Podge to seal your fossils.
This was a great activity that the kids really enjoyed. We talked about each ‘fossil’ and spoke about what each dinosaurs name was & whether they were a carnivore or herbivore.
I am busy organising the gifts for all of the Grandmother’s for Mother’s Day. I bought some cute little boxes to place our Thumbprint Necklaces we made: (http://pagingfunmums.com/2013/05/08/thumb-print-necklace-keepsake-jenni/). I wanted the kids to have a little fun on this rainy afternoon, so I grabbed a few materials to ‘bling’ up our gift boxes.
All you need is:
Double sided tape (you can get this from any craft store & most $2 stores)
Glitter
Hundreds & thousands (sprinkles)
All you do is stick on your tape on the box in the pattern you like, peel off the top layer of the tape, then sprinkle over your glitter or hundreds & thousands. The tape will hold all of your sprinkles in the correct place, then just shake off the excess. The kids loved the ‘sprinkling’ part! On that note, make sure you have a tray or dish underneath your work area so clean up is easy!
The hundreds & thousands idea would be great for any kid’s birthday present!
If you come up with any other variations on this, we’d love to hear!
We have plenty of Mother’s Day Craft Ideas for you! Feel free to check them out ad give them a go yourself! Jen & Lou x
